Abstract

Purpose of the study: This study aims to examine two key translation methods in translating flora and fauna culture-bound terms in children's literature from English into Arabic. The study aims to address two research questions. First, is the English (ST)-Arabic (TT) translation of flora and Fauna cultural terms and expressions regulated by norms in translation? Second, what English-Arabic translation strategies have translators of Arabic opted for in translating flora and fauna expressions in children's literature?  This study investigates foreignization and domestication in the English-Arabic translation of the flora and fauna terms in children's literature based on Klingberg's (1986) theoretical framework. To this end, a comparative and descriptive analysis has been applied to analyze and classify the translation of the selected English items and their corresponding Arabic translation based on the proposed theoretical framework. The analysis included three Arabic translations from different translators. The analysis involved identifying the implemented translation methods, i.e., domestication and foreignization following Pedersen (2005). The findings of the comparative- descriptive analysis showed that the translation of the three examined Arabic versions has not been regulated by specific translation norms as the translators domesticated a handful of ST expressions and foreignized others. In other words, the translators' choices of the strategies varied between foreignization and domestication. However, the results of the conducted analysis showed that domestication is more prevalent in the Arabic versions of the story. This study investigates the translators' choices in rendering the English children's literature into Arabic. The study tackles the problem of translating culture-specific items and concepts from the English culture into its corresponding Arabic culture and traditions. In the context of the existing Arabic children's literature in the Arab world, studies are limited regarding the translation of culture-specific items and expressions from English into Arabic. More specifically, the English (ST)-Arabic (TT) translation with a particular focus on the flora and fauna culture-bound references in children's literature has not been investigated by previous studies.